bill: on a tenuous economy too. what are republicans say, wendell? >> reporter: john baker says they don't have a starting point with democrats refusing to say what spending cuts they're willing to accept. democrats say the president made clear in the election campaign he wanted to phase out tax cuts for upper income earnings boehner says he is something for much more than that. >> the president is asking for $1.6 interest worth of new revenue for 10 years, twice as much as he has been asking in public. he has stimulus spending here that exceeded the amount of new cuts that he was willing to consider. it was not a serious offer. >> reporter: politically each side wants the other to own as much as possible of an ultimate agreement that possibly neither of their constituencies are going to like. bill? bill: thank you, wendell goler, on the north lawn there at the white house. martha. martha: a little more background on this now. budget negotiations with congressional leaders started a few weeks ago really with president obama calling for that $1.6 tril